A new website exposing the truth about the number of animals killed by the meat industry has just launched in Canada. Animal Clock, already available in the US and the UK, raises awareness about the vast number of animals raised and slaughtered for food, breaking down slaughter numbers for each type of animal commonly killed on modern farms.

Animal Clock features a live calculator showing how many animals are being killed by the Canadian meat industry. Nearly all of the animals slaughtered were first raised on commercial farms, where physical and emotional suffering and deprivation is the norm. Animals are confined in large, crowded barns. They experience painful procedures such as debeaking and castration without anesthetic, and many animals never see the light of the sun or breathe fresh air until the day they are shipped to the slaughterhouse, often at only a few months of age.

The startling number of animals slaughtered in Canada each year is a wake-up call.

In 2017, Canada killed over 800 million land animals for food. This is up from 771 million in 2016, as people are eating less cows but more chicken flesh. Chickens are smaller animals, so more of them must be killed to produce the same volume of meat.

Animal Clock also acts an advocacy tool, empowering citizens to stand up against the cruelty of the meat industry. The site explains how Canada’s legal system fails animals, why our laws are among the worst in the western world, and calls out the government for blocking many attempts to improve our laws.

In the “You can make a difference” section, Animal Clock breaks down how people can get change the world for animals by sharing information with others, getting politically active, voting with their wallet, and reporting animals cruelty when they see it.

Finally, the site highlights the plant-based movement that is rapidly expanding across the country. A cultural shift away from meat consumption to plant-based eating is good news for animals, human health, and the environment. Now that’s something to celebrate!

The dairy industry recently launched #Februdairy, a social media campaign aiming to promote dairy milk during the month of February. But before the campaign could even officially start, it quickly became a marketing failure.

When public caught wind, the Twitter hashtag exploded with the shocking truth about the dairy industry—focusing on the immense animal suffering that goes into all dairy milk products:

In the Canadian dairy industry, cows are forcefully impregnated, and and their calves are taken away shortly after birth so the milk can be sold. Male calves typically become veal, and female calves suffer the same fate as their mothers. When their bodies wear out and they cease to be profitable, dairy cows are sent to slaughter and become hamburger meat.

Dairy milk is isn’t just bad for animals. It’s linked to multiple diseases in humans, and takes a toll on the environment. Additionally, up to 90% of people of some non-European ethnicities can’t even digest the lactose found in dairy milk.

As plant milk sales continue to soar and dairy sales plummet, it’s easy to see why the dairy industry is desperate to convince people that its products are worth consuming.

According to Statistics Canada, milk consumption has fallen by 21.5% per-capita since 2009. Meanwhile almond milk consumption has tripled in just two years, according to Nielson.

Many milk companies see the writing on the wall, and are choosing to move into the plant-based milk market. Last year, Danone bought WhiteWave Foods, a plant-based milk company, for $10 billion USD. In 2017, Ben and Jerry’s started to roll out its impressive line of vegan ice cream.

Hello, plants—goodbye, dairy!

Meanwhile, Canadian health and food policy also appears to be shifting away from dairy. Health Canada recently released the draft for the new Canada Food Guide. Unlike previous versions, there is no dairy category in sight.

At a recent conference in Scotland, a livestock sustainability consultant stated, “There is a need in the dairy sector for some myth-busting. If consumers don’t buy our products – milk, cream, butter, cheese etc – we will not have a dairy industry in five to 10 years.”

But the real myths are the ones being told by the dairy industry. With the dairy-free movement continuing to grow, this spells good news for people, the planet and the cows.

Canada is experiencing an especially frigid winter, with temperatures feeling as low as -40° C even in southern parts of the country like Toronto.

Many people will ride out this cold snap in the comfort of their homes, or bundle up if they must face the frosty outdoors. Environment Canada issues extreme cold weather alerts to protect people from frostbite, cities open up warming centres for homeless individuals, and schools even cancel outdoor recess periods when the temperature plummets.

But for the millions of chickens, pigs, and cows trucked to slaughterhouses everyday in Canada, it’s business as usual—even in frigid extremes.

Animals are routinely transported to slaughter in open-sided vehicles, with no heating systems to protect them from the dangerous cold.

Canada’s animal transport laws are among the weakest in the western world, and there are no restrictions that lay out minimum or maximum temperatures in which animals can be transported. In brutally cold weather, animals routinely arrive at slaughter frostbitten or even dead from weather exposure. Workers at Canada’s largest slaughterhouse, Maple Lodge Farms, which kills half a million chickens every day, have described chickens arriving to slaughter, frozen solid like “hockey pucks” and “popsicles”. Government statistics show at least 1.59 million animals arriving dead at slaughterhouses every year.

Canada’s outdated transport laws haven’t been revised since the 1970s, and a recent proposal by the federal government to update the rules still fails to restrict animal transport during extreme weather, or require climate control for trucks.

Existing transport laws are ineffectively enforced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and even when investigations and prosecutions do take place, penalties are not strong enough to motivate industry to protect animals from the cold. Maple Lodge Farms, for example, has been repeatedly convicted and fined for allowing animals to freeze to death, yet still operates using the same inadequate trucks.

In 2018, Animal Justice will continue to fight archaic transport laws, and to protect millions of animals from the extreme suffering they endure on Canadian farms.

To help, please sign up to our mailing list and stay tuned for ways to get involved.

Hi SCARS! My name is Jenny, my hubby Raf and I adopted Jill, now known as Ozzy, at the beginning of June. We wanted to send you a little pupdate on how she is doing. She’s an amazing little dog overall. She is learning lots of tricks. She has sit, shake a paw, and watch, Second Chance Animal Rescue Society